


Torchwood: The Ianto Jones Chronicles Part One

by Darkalli



Series: The Ianto Jones Chronicles [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Torchwood
Genre: Alien Ianto Jones, Alternate Universe, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Father Ianto Jones, Gwen Bashing, Immortal Ianto Jones, M/M, Male Slash, OOC, Original Character(s), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post Mpreg, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-24 04:57:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21332638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkalli/pseuds/Darkalli
Summary: Ianto has a secret, and it's not a half converted Cyberman in the basement. Can Ianto juggle life as a single father, secretly working for the Auror’s, and being Torchwood Threes personal butler, or will something finally give? Jack Harkness is in for one hell of a surprise when his favourite Welshman's secrets finally come to life.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Gwen Cooper/Owen Harper, Gwen Cooper/Rhys Williams, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Severus Snape/Original Female Character(s), past Ianto Jones/Seamus Finnigan
Series: The Ianto Jones Chronicles [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1537837
Comments: 14
Kudos: 161





	1. The Fall of Canary Wharf

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Russel T Davies and JK Rowling, all additional characters and situations are my own and no money is being made from this story.
> 
> A/N: The first part of this series covers before season one all the way up to when Jack swans off with the Doctor. Second part of the series will be set during ‘the year that never was’ and will be mostly flashbacks to Ianto’s life at Hogwarts and during the war whilst he and the other members of Torchwood three try to survive during that year. Series three covers season two of Torchwood and veers right into AU after the episode ‘Adam’. Series three and four have no place in my universe and won’t even get a look in.

**Chapter One:** The Fall of Canary Wharf

  
When Ianto had been given the assignment to spy on Torchwood he had been a bit sceptic at first, the muggles tended to be a bit too nosey for his liking. The Muggle Prime Minister had started getting worried when Yvonne Hartman started looking deeper into the events that occurred in the muggle world during the war with Voldemort. They had covered up the events as well as they could but didn’t know that they would be under the scrutiny of a woman who believed anyone who didn’t fit into her little perfect empire was property of Torchwood, ‘For Queen and Country’.

He had been suggested for the assignment by Harry who had noticed Ianto’s lack of enthusiasm for his job after Seamus died. Harry knew that Ianto needed a change of pace, new scenery and a different job to get him out of the rut he had been in for two years. The change of scenery would do his kids some good too.

Making his way through the ranks at Canary Wharf, Ianto had been promoted into the position needed to keep an eye on the reports being accumulated from the investigation into the ‘terrorist’ attacks that had occurred in ’97 and ’98. It had taken him a year and a half to work his way up to Head Archivist and once he had reached that level, Ianto had been able to doctor the reports so that any connection to the wizarding world was no longer in them.

It had taken a while for him to get the reports the way he wanted them, with everything that happened between Voldemort regaining a body and the end of the second greatest wizarding war, Ianto had to make sure to erase everything pertaining to the wizarding world. It was a hard-enough task without the worry of getting caught by Hartman or one of her followers.

With all the witness reports suggesting a force beyond normal for the general human, Ianto had to track down each witness and alter their memories so they would coincide with the new reports he was doctoring. Twice he had to call the Unspeakables to deal with a couple of witnesses who had shown a resilience to the memory charm, a very rare occurrence with muggles suggesting that they were at least distantly related to a witch or wizard.

He stayed on at the agency, once he had completed the task set out to him, in the hopes that he could prevent anyone else from coming to harm. The Muggles were acting no better than Voldemort with their resolute belief that anything different didn’t have rights and it wasn’t a big deal if they were experimented on.

It was during his first week as head archivist when he came across a file pertaining to a House Elf that had been captured and mistaken for an alien. The poor thing had been kept chained in a dungeon like room where scientists experimented on the creature on an almost daily basis. With a bit of quick thinking, and the use of his magic, Ianto had managed to make it look like the creature had escaped when food was brought to it. With a bit of memory alteration and quite a bit of guile, Ianto managed to get the house elf, who introduced itself as Mindy, back to the wizarding world where she would get the care she needed to heal.

Ianto had almost brought down the full wrath of the Auror department until he realised that he would only end up doing the very thing he was there to prevent, the exposure of the magical world to the muggles. Hermione had been the one to talk him out of it in the end, understanding his anger but not condoning his actions.

From that day on, Ianto made it his goal to make sure that no more magical creatures were captured by Hartman’s power-hungry goons. He also made a habit of letting lose what alien creatures he could without garnering too much suspicion, he knew he couldn’t save them all, but he was determined to save as many as he could. Now, his new assignment was to keep an eye out for any other magical creature that Hartman happens to stumble across. 

However, things changed when the ‘Ghosts’ started appearing as a result of Torchwood’s quest for a more powerful energy source. That’s when everything went to hell in a hand basket and Hartman caused the unnecessary death of ninety-eight percent of the workers at Torchwood London.

  
**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

  
“Do you know what time you’ll be home tonight?”

“It depends on how todays ghost shifts go, if Hartman could get away with it, we would all be there twenty-four/seven. She’s still obsessed with that damn sphere as well.” Ianto told his mother as he made his morning coffee.

“Is dad coming around?” He asked her.

“He’ll be around once breakfast at Hogwarts is over.” Glenda told him as she filled the bowl in front of her with cereal.

“Where’s Morgan and Seren?” Ianto asked as he sat at the table.

“Morgan and Seren are at your sisters, they’ll be here around lunch time.” His mother explained.

  
With his little brother off to Hogwarts, his mother planned to come around more often which meant she would take over the role of babysitter for his son and daughter on a regular basis. Even though his little sister was around the same age as Dylan, she liked to spend most of her time with Micah and Alannah. His mother tried to spend as much time as she could with both his kids and his sister Rhiannon’s two kids, travelling between Cardiff, Newport and London every weekend. Today being another of her visits tied in well with his impromptu call into work on what was originally his day off.

  
“Morning dad.”

  
Ianto had enough time to put his coffee mug down and move his chair back a bit before he was pounced upon by his hyperactive eight-year-old.

  
“Morning, what have you been up to for the past half hour, and where’s your sister?”

“Getting the Wii set up for when Morgan gets here, he said he’d play Wii sports with me. And Lanny is still trying to decide on what she wants to wear, probably another weird clothing choice.” Dylan replied as he gave his dad a hug good morning.

“Leave your sister alone, she has a unique way of dressing. I just hope she doesn’t try to wear your fathers quidditch uniform again, I spent a week trying to get those stains out of the pants.” Glenda reprimanded her grandson.

“Sorry. Dad, do you have to go to work today?” Dylan asked as he made his way to his seat at the table.

“I’m sorry, buddy, I have to go in. I really wish I wasn’t though, but maybe we can go to the aquarium next weekend. Maybe Grandpa can get that weekend off too and come with us.”

“That would be so cool, and Morgan can come too, and Aunty Rhi and Uncle Johnny, and Micah and David.” Dylan said excitedly as he wiggled around in his seat.

“We’ll see little man; you need to behave yourself at school this week and behave for nan while I’m at work.”

“I will.”

“And I’ll be taking the weekend of your sisters’ birthday off whether Hartman likes it or not, I’m not missing her fifth birthday just because Hartman likes controlling everything around her.” Ianto added as his mother placed a plate of food in front of his son.

“I better go and finish getting dressed for work.” Ianto told his mother and son as he made his way out of the kitchen. Heading upstairs he reached the landing and made his way to his bedroom.

  
Being a single parent with a very active eight-year-old, and a boisterous four-year-old (‘four and three quarters’) was hard enough without a cold-hearted boss making things harder. Thanks to Hartman, he had missed Dylan’s birthday earlier in the year, almost leading his mum to head to Torchwood Tower to smack the overachieving woman upside the head, either that or curse her. Rhiannon was the voice of reason in that argument and managed to calm their mother down.

His mum had been protective of Dylan and Alannah ever since Seamus had died, Dylan was only four and Alannah six months when their father was ambushed by rogue Death Eaters whilst on assignment as an Auror. Ianto and Seamus had been together since they were sixteen and had married once the war was over, Dylan had been the result of celebrations after the war had ended, both men glad to be alive and thoughts of protection were the last thing on their minds. Alannah came along four years later, and six months after that their world shattered with just one fire call. 

A lot of Death Eaters had still been on the loose since the end of the war and capturing them was the main job of the unit that Ianto and Seamus were serving in at the Ministry. It had consisted of Ianto, Harry, Seamus, Draco, Blaise Zabini, and Ron and their main task was to track down any loose Death Eater and either capture or kill.

A part of him blames himself for Seamus’ death, at the time he was taking care of his nephew who had contracted Dragon Pox and had to be looked after by someone who had already had it. Seamus had gone ahead on the assignment and had foolishly not waited for backup. It was only after the death of his husband that Ianto found out that there was a spy in the Auror department, sending out word to the Death Eaters who were being hunted. They had organised an ambush, hoping to get all the members of Ianto’s squad, but only ended up killing Seamus and injuring Ron.

Dylan and Alannah had spent a week with Ianto’s mother and father before spending another week with Seamus’ parents while he sorted out funeral details and his husband’s estate. He had almost let them stay another two weeks when his mum and Seamus’ mother told him he needed to take care of his kids himself, they needed Ianto more than anything right then and Ianto had to be the one to take care of them.

Now, almost five years later, he was working in a muggle agency hell bent on creating a new British Empire through means of stolen alien artefacts. The head of said organisation was just as cold hearted as Umbridge had been in their fifth year. He took great pleasure in setting free all the alien’s he could, and even more pleasure in seeing the furious and confused look Hartman always got when she was told of yet another escape.

  
“All right, I’m off. I’ll let you know when I’m leaving work, do you want me to bring home something for dinner?” Ianto asked as he hugged and kissed Dylan and Alannah, who had finally come downstairs dressed in her brother’s rugby uniform from the previous season, then gave his mother a kiss on the cheek.

“I bought the ingredients to make lamb cawl, and the ingredients needed to make my Welsh Cakes.”

“Fantastic, I love your cooking. Now I can’t wait to get home for dinner. Okay Dylan, behave for your nan and Lanny, try not to annoy your brother and cousin too much.” 

“Bye dad.”

“Bye daddy, I can’t make any promises though.” Alannah told her father as she reached for her cup of juice.

  
Ianto laughed at his daughter’s antics before kissing her on top of her head. Grabbing his keys and wallet, he headed for the door to their house before heading out.

  
**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

  
Before heading into work, Ianto stopped at the market to buy more coffee beans for the machine in the tearoom at work. There was no way he was going to drink the swill that was available in the staff room, he had become rather reliant on coffee since he took the job at Torchwood and he had turned into a bit of a coffee snob because of it.

He had endless praise from the other workers on his floor and word about his fantastic coffee had spread rather quickly through the building that people from other departments would come down to the sub-basement just for a cup of his coffee. His mother’s Welsh Cakes were a great hit too on the day’s he would bring a batch in.

  
“Morning, Ianto, what flavours did you pick today?” Eric, the cashier, asked as Ianto put his basket down on the counter.

“Morning, Eric. Thought I’d try a new combination today, got some French Vanilla and Irish Cream.” Ianto told him as he emptied his basket.

“Mm, I’d love to taste that.”

“If I finish early enough, I’ll bring you some on my way home from work.” Ianto told him as he paid the total with his credit card before replacing it in his wallet.

“That would be awesome, have a good day.”

“You too.”

  
Ianto walked out of the shop and got back in his car before heading off towards Canary Wharf, he still had half an hour before he started work. That gave him plenty of time to get there and start the coffee before he had to clock in. The first Ghost shift wasn’t due to occur until ten past twelve, so he had enough time to write up his weekly report for Kingsley before the shift started.

One of Hartman’s retrieval teams had gotten their hands on a cursed item that had somehow ended up in a muggle auction, Ianto was charged with the responsibility of cataloguing the item. During his study, he discovered that it was a cursed artefact that had been stolen from a rather dark wizarding family and sold to some unsuspecting muggle who had gifted it to their grandmother who then proceeded to die due to activating the curse on the item.

It had taken Ianto a week to make a near perfect replica of the artefact before destroying the original, when the research team came to collect the item to study, all they could gather was that whatever was powering it had drained of all energy and the item was deemed useless. Ianto had re-catalogued it and put it into storage.

Kingsley needed the paperwork so that they could deal with the original owner of the artefact as well as the young wizard that thought it was a good idea to steal from a very prominent dark family. Most of his dealings with Torchwood were reported through the Auror department, but on the odd occasion of a more serious matter, he would report to the Minister of Magic, Madame Bones. He still did the occasional Death Eater raid with his old team, but that generally only happened if it required his certain hidden talent that he shared with both Harry and Draco. A talent that wizarding Britain was kept in the dark on for several reasons, one of which was to keep the three men safe from persecution or experimentation.

  
**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

  
Ianto arrived at the underground parking gate with twenty minutes to spare, he parked in his assigned spot and made his way through security before heading for sub-basement two. There was no one else in the lift so Ianto took a moment to lean against the wall in an undignified slump, these Ghost Shifts were starting to make him nervous. The beings that materialised when the Ghost Shifts were activated caused a cold shiver to run down his spine every time. 

From what he had been told by his contacts in the wizarding world, the Ghost Shifts had started to agitate the creatures in the wizarding world. Charlie Weasley had told him how the dragons at the sanctuary had gone ballistic when the first Ghost shift had occurred, trampling through most of the enclosure.

For the last three days his magic had been itching under his skin, it was like the feeling you get when a storm was coming. The hairs on the back of his neck would stand on end and his magic would surge through his body in reaction to the sensation. It was like an itch he just couldn’t reach and as the time for the next Ghost Shift approached, the itch was becoming more intense.

His magic had never let him down, in the past, during the war, it was the perfect indicator when things were about to go wrong. It was rare for a wizard or witch to be so in tune with their magical core that not much information could be found on the subject, but what little he was able to find out was odd enough with most of his peoples history missing due to the big upheaval that brought his ancestors to Earth, but that’s a story for another time.

The lift finally arrived at his floor and Ianto straightened up from where he was slumped against the wall. Tightening his grip on the bag in his hand, Ianto straightened his tie and made his way out of the lift. Turning right, he headed down the hall to the room at the end that housed the kitchen area for he and the other workers in the archives. Setting the bag down on the bench, he proceeded to empty out the contents before making his way over to the coffee machine on the opposite bench.

Just as he was measuring out the amounts of coffee needed to make a good blend, he heard shuffling from behind him, turning around he saw his friend Jess making her way into the little kitchenette with her coffee mug in hand and a rather pitiful look on her face as she looked at the coffee machine that Ianto was standing in front of.

  
“Please tell me your making a fresh brew.” 

“Bought two new flavours this morning.” Ianto replied as he turned back to the machine and continued where he had left off.

“You are a saviour, Mr. Jones.” Jess said as she placed her mug on the bench and lent her hip against said bench.

“I’d rather be a coffee god.” He joked as he started the machine.

“Fine, you’re a coffee god.” She corrected.

“And don’t you forget it.”

“How is Dylan doing in rugby?” Jess asked as she waited for her coffee.

“He’s doing good, his team has made it to the semi-finals.” Ianto informed her.

“That’s great, when is the game?”

“In three weeks’, I applied for the whole weekend off because the Saturday is Alannah’s fifth birthday then Dylan has his match on the Sunday. If Hartman screws me over again, I may just curse her.”

“Ugh, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve wanted to toss a jinx at her or one of her little minions. I have to keep reminding myself that the backlash isn’t worth the few seconds of joy at her discomfort.” Jess told him; she had started to leave her wand at home for the past two weeks to get rid of the temptation.

  
Jess was a muggle-born witch who was in the grade below Ianto and his friends at Hogwarts, they had formed a friendship when Jess had joined the DA in her fourth year. It had been a shock to Ianto when he had bumped into her his first week at Torchwood. After the war, Jess had decided to work in the muggle world, when she had first started at Torchwood, she had no idea what it was they did until her second week when she had seen a security team had brought in what she later had learned was an alien known as a Hoix.

She had been a great help to Ianto when it came to the covering up of his little jail breaks, he tended to perform when Torchwood got their hands on a peaceful alien. Their friendship had grown since then and Jess often came over for dinner.

  
“Kingsley keeps telling me that I can’t curse her, no matter how good my puppy dog eyes are. That man sure knows how to spoil my fun.” Ianto told her as he made her coffee to the way she liked it. 

“Exactly perfect as always, my good sir.”

“My pleasure, ma’am. I better get to my office; I have that report for Kingsley to write up.” Ianto told her as he headed for the doorway.

“No problem, Ianto. I have a couple of artefacts that need to be catalogued before the end of the day. I was hoping to have them finished by end of day yesterday, but Dennison’s team brought back a few items that they had managed to get their hands on before Torchwood Cardiff could get to them when they came through the rift on Thursday. I imagine the leader of that little group was pissed off upon discovering them gone.”

“From what I’ve been able to gather, he is a very formidable man on a good day. Taking artefacts that come though his rift isn’t a smart move on Hartman’s part, she keeps encroaching on his territory and I can just imagine the explosion that will occur.” Ianto added as they walked down the hallway towards his office.

“Tania had a run in with him the last time he came here for a meeting with the Boss Lady, said he’s an insatiable flirt that hit on everyone he came across in the six hours he was here.”

“He sounds very interesting, would negate any boredom sure to occur in a meeting with Yvonne. Bet he enjoys pissing her off the most.”

“I’d love to be a fly on the wall during their meetings, maybe we should set something up the next time he’s due to come here for a meeting.” Jess suggested.

“Well, as tempting as that is, we should get to work before her highness graces us with her unwanted presence.” 

“All right, I’ll see you for lunch. Do you want the usual?”

“Yeah, looks like it’s going to be an office lunch today. Let me know when the lunch run will be.” Ianto told her as he grabbed the file out of his desk drawer.

“Bye, Ianto.”

  
**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

  
Kenny, the archives newest employee, had headed out to get the lunches for the Sub Two staff. Ianto had made another brew of coffee for the other members of his team before heading back to his office to go over several reports he had been handed that were to be filed in the main archive.

He had received a call from his mother letting him know that his sister and her family would be over for dinner that night. His father had been able to get the weekend off instead of just the Saturday. His duties as Headmaster would be put into the hands of Professor McGonagall, and his duties as head of Slytherin would be handed over to the Head Boy who was a Slytherin himself.

Hartman had called down to get the update on an artefact that Ianto had been studying before handing over to the research team, it had given off a familiar signature, but he couldn’t for the life of him remember where he had felt that signature before, a rarity considering his eidetic memory. He had managed to throw her off the scent of that item by bringing up another item that he had hoped would interest her more. Thankfully it had worked, and he was able to study it more closely.

The next Ghost Shift was due to begin at ten past twelve and the closer that time drew near the more his magic sparked under his skin. He just knew that today would bring a change he was sure the planet wasn’t ready for.

Jess had stopped in a couple of times since their chat in the kitchen that morning, one of the items taken from Cardiff was nothing more than a useless piece of junk that would be better used as a paper weight than anything else. Jess seemed convinced that that was exactly what it had been used for by whoever had owned it before it was sucked through the rift.

He had also been contacted by Rajesh Singh who was after an artefact he hoped would help him with his study of the sphere. Ianto had gone straight to the vault containing the artefact that was needed, and after a quick jaunt to the floor that housed the Sphere, Ianto had returned to his office to continue with his work.

Dr. Singh must have acquired a new assistant because Ianto had never seen the young man that was in the room when he went there. He had also been on the receiving end of a rather curious look from said young man.

Ianto’s thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door to his office, looking up he saw Kenny standing there with his lunch in hand.

  
“Here you go, Ianto. I think Gemma likes you, she put extra aioli on it for you.”

“Thanks, Kenny, there’s fresh coffee in the break room.” Ianto told him as he accepted the brown bag containing his burrito. Beef burritos were his favourite muggle food, with Indian curry as his close second.

“Hey, you up for some company?” Ianto looked up to see Jess and Lisa standing in the doorway with their lunches in their hands.

“Of course, how could I say no to you two?”

“So, Lisa, how did that date with Russel go last night?” Ianto asked as his two friends sat down on the other side of his desk.

“It started out great, we went to that new French restaurant I’ve been wanting to go to.” Lisa told them.

“What happened?” Jess asked.

“He spent the entirety of dinner talking about his mum, every time I tried to talk about something else, he would steer the conversation back to his mother.”

“Oh wow, that’s, heh.” Ianto was lost for words, it sounded like a nightmare of a date.

“Yeah, so that one is a great big no. I’m really glad you talked me out of dating anyone at work, I don’t think I’d be able to face him if he worked here.” Lisa told Ianto.

“You’ll find the right guy eventually.” Jess told her with sympathy.

“I’d really like the right guy to be now. You sure I can’t tempt you Ianto?” Lisa asked as she looked over at her friend.

“As much as I love you Lisa, you just don’t do it for me. You’ve got the wrong plumbing.” Ianto told her with a smile. It was a conversation they had so often it became an inside joke.

“Well, you can’t blame me for trying. Any bloke that gets you will be one lucky bastard.” Lisa told him, a wistful look on her face.

“Two minutes to ghost shift, is it me or does today just feel like a bad day to be at work?” Josh, another archivist, asked as he popped his head around Ianto’s office door.

“You’re not the only one that thinks so, even Gareth up top thinks things are going to go wonky and he’s one of the ones in control of the system responsible for the shifts.” Jess pointed out.

“Gareth has doubts. Now I really wish I hadn’t come into work.” Josh moaned before walking away.

“I need you two to promise me something.” Ianto said as he looked at the two women sat across from him.

“What?” They both asked as they gave their full attention to him.

“When things go pear shaped around her, promise me you’ll find the most secure room in this building and lock yourselves in it. Something just doesn’t sit right, and I need to know you two are safe” Ianto implored as he looked them both square in the eye whilst he talked.

“Do you really think something bad is going to happen?” Lisa asked, worry seeping into her voice.

“My instincts have never let me down before; I just need to know you’ll both be safe.” Ianto replied.

“It’s okay, I’ll make sure we get to safety.” Jess told him as she let a hint of her wand show under her sleeve, letting him know she took his words from the previous night seriously and brought it to work.

“Okay, I’ll be able to help out around here a lot easier knowing you two will be safe.”

  
Two hours later, Ianto’s worst fears came true and complete pandemonium rang throughout the tower as Cybermen and Daleks waged war against each other for control of the earth.

  
**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

  
Ianto was making his way back up to the upper corridors of Torchwood tower, a disillusionment charm in place as he made his way past Cybermen patrolling the halls. He had been in the process of searching for a file he needed when word reached him that Hartman and her goons had captured the Doctor, the one man he knew could help them.

He had been on his way up to the top of the tower when the Cybermen had started carting people off to be converted. He had come across a group of his fellow archivists heading for slaughter, five minutes later the four Cybermen lay on the floor dead and the group of six, including Josh, had thanked him profusely before heading back downstairs to the room he told them had been made safe for them to hide in.

It was the same room that he and Jess had put layers and layers of protection ruins and wards on to stop anyone with ill intent from entering. They would be safe until all this was over and he could better concentrate knowing that nothing could get to those he sent there.

He had sent off an emergency Patronus to his mother, telling her to keep everyone inside the house and to get his father to activate the wards. His mother was worried about what was happening, but he promised to explain everything when it was all over.

He had just snuck around a corner in the basement level when he heard a great explosion from down the corridor and watched as the doors to the sphere room exploded inwards and a group of people clad in black and a group of Cybermen ran into the room. Keeping close to the wall, Ianto watched and listened as the Cybermen opened fire on the Daleks, momentarily stunning them.

When a man Ianto assumed was the Doctor ran out of the room followed by another man in a suit and a blonde woman, he watched as the events unfolded in front of him. After the man he saw early that day in the sphere room ran out of the room, Ianto watched as the Doctor used a silver cylinder with a blue light at the end to lock the blast doors leading into the room they had just exited. Ianto placed his right hand against the wall and channelled some of his magic into the foundation itself, making it a bit harder for the Dalek’s to exit the room when they do manage to break through.

The Doctor must have sensed his use of magic because he turned around and looked right at where Ianto was still under the disillusionment charm. A look of curiosity crossed the Time Lords face as he looked at Ianto, Ianto threw him a sloppy salute before stepping back into the shadows.

It figured that the Doctor would be able to see through his charm, the writings suggested that the Time Lords could see through his people’s magic. The Time War effected so many beings, so many planets, and a lot of the information from that time was lost in the battles that ensued.

With the Dalek’s trapped for the time being, Ianto made his way to his original destination intent on finding more people to rescue. As he made his way up the tower, the number of humans he saw became less and less. A building that once housed a thousand workers was like a ghost town, Ianto noticed as he made his way further up the tower.

On his way through the levels Ianto rescued another fifteen people, sending them down to the room in the sub-basement that he had sent the others to. Being robotic in nature, the Cybermen didn’t stand a chance against Ianto’s magic. He was so mad by the time he reached the level that the conversions were taking place, that he didn’t even need to bother using his wand. His magic felt like it was burning under skin, itching to get out and be used, and he did so. Frying the circuits in the Cybermen.

  
**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

  
Ianto came to consciousness with a jolt, the noise around him rising to cacophony as his senses came back to him. He tried to sit up but felt a hand on his shoulder holding him down.

  
“Steady on, you’ve had a pretty bad knock on the head.” The voice belonging to the hand said to him.

“What’s going on?” Ianto asked as he finally opened his eyes and saw a medic crouching over him.

“It’s all over, whatever those things were, they’re gone. You were found unconscious on the ground on the top floor, you were brought down here along with all the other survivors.” The medic explained as he helped Ianto to sit up and lean against the wall.

  
Ianto was about to get up from where he was sitting when he heard his name called, looking up he saw Jess and Lisa running towards him. Other than looking dishevelled, they looked to be okay.

  
“We’re so glad you’re okay.” Jess said as she lent down to hug him, letting go when he groaned in pain.

“Are you okay?” Lisa asked as she knelt next to him.

“He’ll be fine, he’s got a goose egg on his head but apart from that he seems fine. A mild concussion which means he’ll need monitoring for the next few hours.” The medic informed them as he packed away his kit.

  
Both girls sighed with relief and with a promise to get him home and to make sure he was monitored, the three of them thanked the medic and bid him goodbye as he made his way to the next person.

  
“Do you remember what happened?” Jess asked him.

“I had almost made it to Hartman’s office when Cybermen started flying past me, one of them must have hit me on their path through the building and knocked me out cold. Next thing I know I’m waking up here with that medic crouching over me.” Ianto explained as Lisa and Jess helped him to stand.

“It’s been about an hour since UNIT stormed the building, and an hour and a half since all the Dalek’s and Cybermen disappeared.” Jess told him as they headed towards the exit.

“UNIT have set up tents outside for the survivors. They’re taking names of the survivors and getting records on those that didn’t make it. From the sounds of it, Hartman was converted just before the Dalek’s started swarming.” Lisa said.

  
The three of them exited the building into total chaos, there were UNIT soldiers everywhere and there was still smoke billowing from buildings further down the street, results of the fight between the Dalek’s and Cybermen that had spilled out into the streets of London.

  
“Torchwood three got here about twenty minutes ago, they’ve been rummaging through the vaults and have taken anything of worth, they didn’t even stop to help on their way through the tower.” Jess informed Ianto as they made their way towards the main tent. Being a department head, Ianto would need to give an account of the events from his point of view and whether he could have stopped what had happened.

  
He spent three quarters of an hour explaining things to a UNIT general who acted like he didn’t even want to be there. Once the man was satisfied with his answers, Ianto and the girls could leave. Once finished, Ianto sent the girls to the car and he made his way back into the building, with the power down it meant that the CCTV was down as well, so he found an empty room and apparated down to the archives. Harkness’ team must have been in the vault because he didn’t see them anywhere as he made his way to the storage room next to his office. There were somethings he would need, and he wanted to get them before the people from Cardiff got to them. 

Once he had retrieved the items, and storing them in his expanded bag, Ianto apparated back up to the room he was in upstairs and then made his way out of the building before heading to the car park where the girls were waiting for him. Ianto had lost his mobile at some point and it wasn’t safe to send off a Patronus with so many UNIT soldiers around so he would have to wait till he got home to reassure his family that he was okay.

The news crews were in abundance as he drove out of the car park, the story would be all over the TV and his family would be worrying by now. Jess’ family lived over an hour away from the city and Lisa’s parents were on their second honeymoon so he would make sure the pair of them rang their families when they got to his house before they found out about the incident from the news.

  
“There’s so much damage, and so many people are dead. All this carnage because Yvonne thought she knew better. She just wanted more power.” Lisa spoke softly as she looked out the passenger window at the carnage in the streets.

“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Hartman wanted a British empire and she didn’t care who she walked over to get it.” Ianto added.

  
The car filled with silence as Ianto drove home, sirens still sounded in the distance. The pain in his neck was proof that something more than a slight goose egg occurred. The Cybermen were flying at speed and Ianto knew that no one could survive that kind of impact. He was just glad that whatever it was inside him that insisted on keeping him alive had brought him back to the land of the living before he was found, he had no intentions of ever becoming some government agencies experiment. He just wished that his non-life-threatening injuries healed at the same time he comes back to life.

Only a select few knew about his ability, an ability he shared with Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, the only two other people with him during the final battle at Hogwarts. All these years later and they still didn’t know the cause or whether it was permanent, Ianto wasn’t even sure if he wanted to find out.

  
“You girls can call your families from my place. My mam was planning on making dinner so I’d say there would be plenty for you two as well.” Ianto told them as he pulled into his driveway.

“I’m starving, nothing like a big adrenaline rush to build up an appetite.” Jess told him as they all climbed out of the car.

Before Ianto had a chance to make it to the front door, it banged open and his daughter came racing out and threw herself at her father’s legs. Ianto bent down and picked her up, holding her close as she started to sob into his shoulder. He continued walking into the house where he saw his mother standing in the hallway, wringing her hands together as she looked at her son.

  
“Ianto, what the hell happened?” His father asked as he joined them in the hall.

“Let’s all sit down in the sitting room, it’s not good tad, it’s really not good.” Ianto told him as he made his way into the room. Alannah refused to be put down so Ianto sat down on the lounge and arranged her so that she was comfortable before starting the story.

“Hartman went too far, opening the portal made it possible for these creatures known as Cybermen to come through from an alternate reality. They came here to convert all humans, the Doctor got involved and Hartman ended up capturing him and making everything worse.”

“Will that woman never learn?” His mother asked as she entered with a tray of tea and biscuits for everyone.

“It’s a bit late for that now, she was converted into a Cyberman and then sucked through the portal into the void.” Jess told her.

“How many people?” Severus asked, war was never kind to the innocent caught in the crossfire.

“One hundred and three, out of fifteen hundred. And they only survived because I hid them in the sub-basement.” Ianto told him.

“Did you -?” His mother couldn’t even finish the sentence, she hated that her son put his life at risk simply because he couldn’t die.

“Yeah, got hit by a Cyberman as it was being sucked into the void. I think it broke my neck; I have the same feeling I had last time that happened.” Ianto explained, not caring about the confused look on Lisa’s face.

  
His father reached into the inner pocket of his coat and pulled out his potions kit, even though the war was over, Severus could never break the habit of always carrying his kit. Resizing it, he pulled out a pain potion and a healing potion and handed them to his son. Once Ianto downed the potions, Severus banished the vials back to his lab at Hogwarts.

  
“Where’s Rhia and the kids?” Ianto asked after taking a big gulp of his tea to get rid of the foul after taste of the potions.

“Your sister took the kids out the back, when those Cybermen started marching in the streets Micah and Lanny were so scared they couldn’t stop crying. Dylan, David and Morgan were able to settle Micah, but Lanny wouldn’t leave my side until she saw your car pull into the drive.” His mother explained.

“Oh sweetie, are you all right now?” He asked his daughter, who had finally lifted her head from his shoulder to look at him.

“Are the bad robots gone now, daddy?”

“Yeah sweetie, they’re gone. A really awesome alien made them go away for good.” Ianto reassured her.

“That’s good, can I go tell Dylan you’re home now?” She asked as she slid off her father’s lap.

“Of course, go let them all know it’s over and that I’m home.” Ianto told his daughter as she ran out of the room.

“What’s going to happen now that Torchwood is gone?” Severus asked him.

“Torchwood London wasn’t the only one, from what I was able to gather the original Torchwood is in Scotland but that is mainly used as an archive for all old case files dating back to the founding of Torchwood. Torchwood four has vanished so that leaves Torchwood three in Cardiff, I have no idea how they operate but Hartman never had a kind word to say about the leader of Torchwood Cardiff.” Ianto explained.

“Dad!” Looking up, Ianto saw his son run into the room followed by his daughter, his sister’s kids and his brother and sister.

“Lanny said the bad robots are gone; did you blow them up?” Micah asked her uncle.

“No, I didn’t blow them up. The Doctor got rid of them.” Ianto told her.

“That’s good, they were scary, and people were running around screaming from them.” Micah told him

“All right, enough of all this talk. It’s almost time for dinner, you kids need to go and wash your hands before you come to the table. Jess and Lisa, you can go and get a shower and then use the phone to call your families to let them know that you are okay. Dinner should be done in half an hour.” Glenda told them as she got up from her seat, she’d had enough of depressing talk.

“I’ll get in contact with Kingsley in the morning, see what he wants me to do now that Torchwood London is no more. For now, I need a coffee.” Ianto said as he got up, tomorrow was another day that would bring more problems, but they were tomorrow’s problems.


	2. Getting into Torchwood Cardiff

**Chapter Two: **Getting into Torchwood Cardiff

Two months had passed since the fall of Torchwood London. Ianto had received a new assignment, the Ministry didn’t feel comfortable leaving another Torchwood unchecked, especially after the events at Canary Wharf. Kingsley was non too impressed about the head of Torchwood three only grabbing tech and not helping during the clean-up, he told Ianto that it was a heartless thing to do and he didn’t trust a man who could do that. Ianto had been reassigned to Torchwood Cardiff, a place he would need to get into on his own.

It took him three weeks to find a house and then another week to sort out primary school for Dylan and Alannah. The plus side to moving back to Cardiff is that he would be closer to his sister and mother and his mother wouldn’t need to travel as far to come and see them anymore.

They were well into the summer holidays by the time they had moved to their new home, it made it easier to transition the kids to a new school. Dylan was just happy he was closer to his cousins, even though he would miss his friends. Ianto was just hoping Dylan wouldn’t have any trouble at school, Dylan had inherited his father’s thick Irish accent and while it was not a problem with his friends, he had copped quite a bit of teasing about it at his old school.

Alannah on the other hand had not spent enough time with her father to pick up his accent, instead she had picked up Ianto’s thick Welsh accent, much to his mothers’ glee. Ianto’s daughter had found it hard to make and keep friends because of her unique sense of style and her fascination with ‘Mythical’ creatures. Rhia always told her niece that they were just jealous that they didn’t have her imagination, even though the creatures she was fascinated with were indeed real.

After UNIT had finished cleaning up the mess at Canary Wharf, and they had given their statements, Lisa had gone back to her parent’s home. She no longer wanted anything to do with Torchwood, UNIT had given a survival benefit to the hundred survivors from that day. Ianto called it hush money because UNIT had no way of keeping the survivors quiet unless they wanted to take a leaf out of Torchwoods book.

Lisa wouldn’t need to work for a while with the amount of money she was given so she planned on living with her parents and living a quiet life without the risk of death that came with working for an organisation like Torchwood. Jess on the other hand had followed Ianto to Cardiff and volunteered to be Ianto’s live in nanny, if he ended up working for Torchwood three then he would need all the help he could get in looking after the kids. As much as his mom loved her grandkids, she couldn’t spend every day with them.

Ianto had essentially told UNIT where they could shove their hush money and then had proceeded to walk out in the middle of the conversation, Kingsley was only annoyed at the way he went about his little rebellion, not the reasoning for it. As far as Ianto’s boss was concerned UNIT and Torchwood were cut from the same cloth and he’d never trust either one of them. Now he just needed to find a way into Torchwood three, which somehow, he knew was going to be a difficult task

**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

A week didn’t seem that long to some people but when you had spent that week following a man who somehow knew you were there, and he pretty much led you on a wild goose chase it was enough to frustrate anyone.

What stumped Ianto the most was the fact that Captain Harkness was somehow able to sense him through the disillusionment charm he had been wearing all week. He was always fiddling with the strap on his wrist when ever he led Ianto around in circles before losing him in an alleyway Ianto didn’t even know about. He hadn’t been to Cardiff since he was a teenager, well before the war broke out, so he didn’t know the streets as well as he knew the streets of London.

He was on his way home from another failed attempt to follow the Captain when he heard a noise through the trees of Bute Park. Quietly stalking through the trees, Ianto cam to a small clearing where he saw the very man, he had been trying to follow on the ground with a creature on top of him.

Ianto, not wanting to give away what he really was, even in this situation, grabbed up a branch from off the ground and whacked the creature on the back twice before knocking it off the other man. Before Ianto even had a chance to say a word the creature, that he now identified as a Weevil, launched itself at him and tried to get a bite in on his neck. Before the Weevil had a chance to bite him, Harkness tackled it to the ground causing Ianto to stumble back a few steps before spraying something in the creatures face, Ianto threw the stick away and watched as the other man placed a bag over the Weevil’s head and injected it with a needle he pulled from his pocket.

“Thanks.” Ianto said as he caught his breath while leaning against a tree.

“No, thank you. And you are?” Harkness asked with a leer as he looked at Ianto.

“Jones, Ianto Jones.” _I really need to stop watching Bond movies._ Ianto thought as he internally rolled his eyes at the response he gave to Harkness.

“Nice to meet you, Jones, Ianto Jones. Captain Jack Harkness.” Ianto reached to shake the man’s hand.

“Lucky Escape.” Ianto said as he looked down at the unconscious creature.

“I had it under control.”

“You think so? It looked pretty vicious. You’re, um… you were bleeding.” Ianto said to the other man, he could still see the blood on the other man’s neck but there was no mark to explain where the blood had come from.

“Had worse from shaving.”

“Looked like a Weevil to me.” Ianto said as he looked at said Weevil on the ground.

“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.” Ianto gave Harkness a knowing look but the other man ignored it completely whilst returning his own suspicious look as he reached down to grab the Weevil.

“I’ll take it from here. Thanks for the assistance.” Harkness said to Ianto before he started to walk off with the Weevil slung over his shoulders.

“Anytime. By the way, love the coat.” Ianto said as he watched the Captain walk away, and if he snuck a peek at the retreating man’s ass no one else was there to call him on it.

He’d finally met the leader of Torchwood three and he had gotten himself a headache for his troubles. He could feel the stickiness of the blood dripping down the side of his face from where one of the Weevil’s claws had caught him in their struggle, he just hoped none of his kids were up when he got home.

**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

The next morning Ianto made up a fresh brew of coffee and proceeded to fill a thermos with enough to try and win the Captain over with, his coffee was the only thing that could calm the raging bull that Yvonne Hartman sometimes became when things didn’t go as she had planned them. He was really hoping that his coffee would help in his plea to work for Torchwood.

He parked at the Millennium Centre parking lot before making his way to the supposed secret entrance to Torchwood threes base, in the week prior, Ianto had seen Harkness and his team enter and exit from the small tourist office on a regular basis. He’d even seen them getting pizza delivered there, so much for a secret organisation.

Upon arrival, Ianto place a detection charm on the front door, warning him when someone was about to exit from the small shop front. He was really hoping that it would be Harkness, he didn’t fancy trying to convince any of the other team members he had seen.

He didn’t have to wait for long, his charm warned him that someone was approaching the door so he opened the thermos and poured out some coffee into the mug he had brought with him, ready and waiting for the arrival of whom he hoped would be Harkness.

“Morning.” Ianto called, getting the attention of the Captain as he walked out the door.

“Coffee?” He asked as he handed the mug over, Harkness gave him a look of suspicion before taking a mouthful of the coffee.

“Wow.” Harkness said with a look of appreciation before handing the mug back.

“I want to work for you.”

“Sorry. No vacancies.”

“Look, let me tell you about myself.” Ianto tried again.

“Ianto Jones, born August 19th, 1980. Able student but not exceptional. One minor conviction for shoplifting in your teens. Number of temporary jobs, mainly a drifter, until three years ago you join the Torchwood Institute in London. Junior Researcher.” Harkness rattled off as he walked along the pier.

“I got promoted to head archivist. Look, you checked me out.” Which was Ianto’s hope when he mentioned the Weevil the night before.

“You knew what a Weevil was. Thought I was gonna have to come deal with you.” Harkness told him.

“But instead you could see, I have the right qualifications for the job.”

“There is no job. We’re nothing to do with Torchwood London. I severed all links.” Harkness told him before he started to walk off.

“Yet when it burned, two members of your team scavenged the ruins.” Ianto was still pissed about that.

“Don’t want the equipment getting into the wrong hands.” Harkness replied as he removed Ianto’s hand from his chest.

“And you’re the right hands, are you?” Ianto asked, Harkness just looked at him. Ianto needed to keep pushing.

“Trial period, three months.”

“No.”

“Three weeks. Three days. Let me prove myself to you. I’ll work for nothing” Ianto could feel his chance dwindling the more resolute the other man stayed.

“No.” Harkness said again before walking around Ianto and heading off. Desperate now, Ianto tried to draw a sympathy card from his deck as he went a different route.

“I saw what they did at Canary Wharf. What am I supposed to do with those memories?”

“You are not my responsibility. And we’re not hiring.” Harkness snapped before going around Ianto again.

“Same time tomorrow then.” Ianto called to the retreating man.

“There’s no job for you here and there never will be.” Harkness replied as he continued walking away.

“I really like that coat.” Ianto quipped as he watched the man walk away, his eyes straying to that ass again. As much as he hated Harkness, Ianto was a gay man who could appreciate a fine ass, no matter who it was attached to.

**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHHP**

Ianto spent the better part of the day bitching to Jess about the stubbornness of Captain Jack Harkness, Jess on the other hand spent most of that time laughing at her friend. If she didn’t know any better, she’d say that her friend had a crush.

“Don’t be absurd, I don’t have a crush.” Ianto said as he finally sat back on his seat.

“You’ve mentioned the man’s ass four times already, and that’s just about last nights encounter alone.” Jess responded.

“Oh, shut up.”

“Wow, emulating your children much?”

Before Ianto had a chance to respond, a beeping sound came from inside his jacket pocket. Reaching in Ianto pulled out the Rift activity locator he had nicked from Torchwood London before Harkness’ team could take everything.

“What’s that?”

“It’s a Rift activity locator, I thought it would come in handy and it looks like I was right. It’s picked up a signal near the industrial section.” Ianto explained as he fiddled with a few of the buttons.

“Looks like I have another reason to annoy Harkness.” Ianto told her as he got up from his seat and put his suit coat on.

“You’re going to go out in that suit?” Jess asked him, he’d had a parent/teacher meeting at his kids’ school, just to go over how they were settling in. He didn’t get the chance to change before Jess had come home and he had started on his rant.

“It’ll be fine, I don’t have the time to change. I need to go and see what this disturbance is and then track down Harkness.” Ianto told her as he grabbed his keys from the hall table before opening the front door.

“I’ll be back soon.” Ianto told her.

If he had known that what he would find was a prehistoric animal flying around a warehouse, Ianto would have taken the time to change out of his suit. From the looks of it, the Pterodactyl had managed to get into the warehouse but was unable to get back out again. It was a perfect opportunity, not only would it get Harkness’ attention, but it may just prove Ianto’s hunch right. If Harkness thought like Torchwood London, then he would have killed that Weevil the other night instead of subduing it. Thought there was a small part of his brain that was telling him that the Weevil was subdued so it could be experimented on, but he muted that part.

Flicking his hand at the window the dinosaur had used to gain access to the warehouse, Ianto closed and locked the window. He then reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a bar of chocolate he had bought earlier that day, hoping the creature would like it he broke off a piece and threw it up into the air where the Pterodactyl swooped down and caught it in its beak.

“You’re a beauty, aren’t you? Let’s just hope my hunch is right.”

With the dinosaur distracted, Ianto walked out of the warehouse as he pulled another device from out of his jacket. This one was smaller than the Rift activity locator, pressing a few buttons on the screen activated the tracker he had placed on the Torchwood SUV. Now that he knew where Harkness was, he could bring the man back to the warehouse and hopefully talk his way into a job.

**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

Stepping out in front of the SUV probably wasn’t the best idea Ianto had ever come up with but he was tired of all the crap he was going through just to get into Torchwood. He really didn’t want Kingsley calling in a favour with the queen.

“Okay, this has to stop.” Harkness said as he slammed the car door.

“No, listen to me.”

“I don’t have time for this. Look, I don’t care what your problem is, I want you out of this city by sunrise. There is no place for you here. Go back to London, find yourself another life. Keep stalking me, I’ll wipe your memory.” Harkness yelled at him; boy was the man worked up. Ianto almost felt bad for annoying him so much.

“No, but the thing is…” Harkness wouldn’t even let him finish.

“Look, any conversation between us, no matter what the subject, is over! Finished, done, forever! I’m getting back behind the wheel of that car and if you’re still in the road, I’m going to drive through you.” _Harsh much?_ Ianto thought as he looked at the angry man before him.

“So, you’re not gonna help me catch this Pterodactyl then?” Ianto asked. _Bingo!_ Ianto thought as Harkness turned around, a look of shocked interest just visible on his face.

**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

“Okay, that is the only special equipment you’ve got?” Ianto asked as he watched Harkness fill a big syringe.

“Yeah, cos I keep dinosaur nets in the back of the SUV.” Was Harkness’ smart-ass response.

“Torchwood London would’ve.” Harkness looked at him, unimpressed, before turning around and rushing for the door to the warehouse.

The Pterodactyl must have gotten agitated in the time Ianto was gone because it swooped at them once they entered the warehouse, screeching at them as it got closer.

“Nope.” Ianto said before turning around and hightailing it out of the building, slamming the door shut before leaning against it.

“How did you find it?” Harkness asked as they leant against the door.

“Rift activity locator.” Ianto replied.

“Torchwood London.” Jack said as he looked at the Welshman.

“See, quality kit.”

“Yeah, it’s quite excitable.”

“Must be your aftershave.” Ianto said as he got a good waft of it, it smelt divine.

“Never wear any.” Harkness said as he looked at Ianto.

“You smell like that naturally?” Ianto asked as he got another waft of the smell.

“51st century pheromones. You people have no idea.” What the man next to him made no sense but Ianto would think on that later.

“Ready for another go?” Harkness asked.

“I’m game if you are.”

“Three, two, one…” Harkness counted down before turning and opening the door.

“Split up.” Harkness called as he ran one direction and Ianto ran in the other. They circled around the Pterodactyl and stopped behind it.

Ianto stood there and watched as Harkness slowly edged his way towards the dinosaur that had landed on the ground. What happened next seemed to cement Ianto’s theory that Harkness was nothing like Yvonne Hartman when it came to dealing with creatures that weren’t supposed to be here.

“We’re not gonna harm you. You can’t stay here, come back with me.” Harkness said as he patted himself on the chest.

“I’ve got somewhere nice and big where you can fly around.”

“Okay, so you’ll let the Pterodactyl in and not me.”

“We need a guard dog.” Harkness responded.

“I can be that. Like a receptionist. Building maintenance, food and drink, dry cleaning even. That coat of yours must take a battering. Like a butler, I could be a butler.” Ianto was really reaching now for ways he could get into Torchwood. He really didn’t want to be a butler.

“We don’t need a butler.” Harkness responded.

“Excuse me, dried egg on your collar.” Ianto pointed out.

“It was a busy week.”

“What exactly is your plan?” Ianto asked.

“I’m gonna be the decoy.”

“And it will rip you to shreds.” Ianto interrupted.

“Dinosaurs? Had ‘em for breakfast. Had to, only source of pre-killed food after the asteroid crashed.” Ianto gave him an incredulous look, _What the hell is he on about?_

“Long story. Here you go.” Harkness said as he held up the big needle for Ianto to take.

“One injection to the central nervous cortex. I’ll keep it occupied. Move”

“No.”

“What?”

“It knows me. I’ll be a better decoy.” Ianto explained.

“Way to dangerous.”

“No, I’ve got a secret weapon. Chocolate. Preferably dark.” Ianto said as he handed the needle back and pulled another block of chocolate from his pocket.

Ianto walks around o the left of the dinosaur whistling to try and get its attention, whilst Harkness makes his way around to the back of the prehistoric bird.

“I got your favourite. Yeah.” Ianto said before he threw the bar on the ground in front of the Pterodactyl.

“It’s good for your serotonin levels. If you’ve got serotonin levels.” Ianto said as he watched it peck at the bar before turning around and spotting Harkness.

The Pterodactyl takes flight and Harkness grabs hold of one of its legs before it fully launches into the air.

“Woah, Ianto!” Ianto watches as the Pterodactyl takes the captain on a little flight around the warehouse. He sees the exact moment that Harkness injects the Pterodactyl in the leg and he just knows this is going to end badly.

That’s proven to be true when Harkness lands on him, knocking him to the ground whilst simultaneously knocking the wind from his lungs.

“Sorry.” Harkness gets out before Ianto spots the falling dinosaur and rolls them out of the way. Laughing, he looks down on the man below him and is so tempted to kiss the lips in front of him.

“I should go.” Ianto says, getting off the other man, really hoping he didn’t feel Ianto’s rapidly growing hardness.

“Hey! Report for work first thing tomorrow. Like the suit by the way.”

If Harkness had seen the smirk on Ianto’s face as he walked away, the other man would have been all over him. Good thing was that he finally had an in at Torchwood three, no more chasing the captain around Cardiff anymore. He was glad he had parked near the warehouse, Harkness falling on him had hurt his back and he really didn’t feel like walking any great distance.


	3. Interlude

**Chapter Three****: **Interlude

“And I’m in.” Those were the first words out of Ianto’s mouth when he finally got home. Jess was the only one up, the kids having gone to be hours ago.

“He finally caved?” Jess asked as she followed her friend into the kitchen.

“The Pterodactyl may have had something to do with it.” Ianto told her as he started the kettle, it was too late for coffee but a nice hot cup of tea before bed would be fantastic.

“What Pterodactyl?”

“The Rift activity locator detected a Rift spike, I traced it to a warehouse where there was a Pterodactyl flying around. I locked it in, located Harkness and his stupid flashy SUV and threw the dinosaur at him like bait.” Ianto explained.

“And I’m guessing he took the bait.”

“Oh yeah, hook, line and sinker. We went to the warehouse to catch the Pterodactyl; I was mainly hoping that I could set it free when I finally got into Torchwood but from the conversation Harkness had with it, I’d say there would be no need.”

“What do you mean, is he planning on killing the poor thing?” Jess asked, a hint of worry in her voice.

“No, he offered it a job as their guard dog. He was going to give a job to a dinosaur but not me.”

“Oh, poor Ianto. What happened for him to finally say yes to you?” Jess asked as Ianto placed a cup of tea on the bench in front of her.

“After injecting the Pterodactyl with a tranquiliser, Harkness fell on top of me. Then I had to roll us out of the way of the falling dinosaur and then I almost kissed him.”

“You almost kissed the leader of Torchwood three?” Jess asked, incredulously.

“Yeah, stupid move I know. I must have impressed him somehow because after I got up and started to leave, he called out to me to start first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Kingsley will expect a report tonight, and then another after you finish work tomorrow.” Jess told him.

“Yeah, I’ll fire call him before I go to bed and let him know what’s going on, see what he wants me to do now I have the job at Torchwood.”

“Well I’m off to bed, you’ll be leaving early so I’ll make sure the kids know where you are.”

“Thanks Jess, I’ll see you tomorrow.” After Jess left the room, Ianto took his cup of tea and headed towards his office, it was the only room in the house that had a fireplace set up for the Floo service.

Having the Floo set up in his office made doing his job a lot easier, he’d had the same setup in the house in London. He often had Kingsley or one of his old teammates coming through the Floo on a weekly basis and with two kids who constantly had school friends over he didn’t need to be explaining away strange men coming out of a fireplace.

It had happened before, once when Dylan was having a sleepover for his sixth birthday. Harry had come through the Floo just as one if his son’s friends had taken a wrong turn and entered his office instead of the bathroom. A memory charm and a warm glass of milk later and Dylan’s friend was none the wiser. That incident had prompted him to put a ward on his office door that would turn people away whenever the Floo was active.

Draining the last of the tea in his cup, Ianto placed it on his desk and grabbed the pot of Floo powder from off the fireplace mantle. Floo calls were not his favourite form of communication, the soot he ended up covered in was one of the reasons, the other was that he thought it ridiculous to sit on your knees with your head in a fire and your ass in the air. But until the wizarding world caught up with the rest of the world it would continue to be the main form of communication.

“Kingsley, are you still in?” Ianto called out.

“Ianto, what’s wrong?”

“Mind if I come through?” Ianto asked his boss.

“Of course. I was just about to leave but this must be important if you’re contacting me at this time of night.” Kingsley told him as he stepped back, letting Ianto through the Floo into his office.

“Drink?” Kingsley offered.

“No thanks, just finished a cup of tea, I’m planning on going to bed after this.”

“All right, what have you got to report?” Kingsley asked as he sat down at his desk.

“Harkness finally hired me; I start first thing tomorrow.”

“How did you manage that? Last I heard from you was when you helped him capture that Weevil.” Kingsley asked.

“Before leaving Canary Wharf, I went back in and took a few things from the archives. Among them was a Rift activity locator, it went off earlier tonight and I went looking for whatever it was that came through the Rift. Turned out to be a Pterodactyl that had come through and somehow managed to get itself trapped inside a warehouse. Once I trapped it inside, I was able to track down Harkness and talk him into helping me catch it.” Ianto explained.

“And he offered you the job after that?”

“I argued with him whilst we were trying to catch the Pterodactyl, he was willing to give a job to a displaced dinosaur, but he wouldn’t even take me in for a trial period. I must have impressed him somehow because as I was leaving, he called out to me to start first thing tomorrow.”

“Okay, we’ll need to play this by ear. From your report about the Weevil and now his treatment of the Pterodactyl, he sounds completely different to Hartman. However, I don’t want to risk your position if we get complacent and he ends up being worse than Hartman.” Kingsley told him as he opened his ink pot and starting writing on the parchment in front of him.

“I was planning on suggesting to Harkness that the tourist office needs fixing up, I know they use it as a front to hide the entrance to their base but from what I was able to gather, it spends more time disused than anything else. There’s no point having a cover if it isn’t a working cover.” Ianto told Kingsley as he took up a spare quill and wrote down the address of the tourist office in Mermaid Key.

“That’s a good idea, it will also present an opportunity for me to keep in touch with you whilst you are working. I can send messengers to the shop front disguised as delivery men and you can send any report that way.”

“Sounds like a plan, I’d send the reports at the end of the day, but something tells me that with Torchwood three being such a small group I’ll be working a lot of late nights and early mornings.” Ianto added.

“All right start tomorrow with the suggestion to redo the tourist office. Then try and get access to the archives, we need to know what exactly they took from London when they raided the archives there.” Kingsley told Ianto as he continued to write on the parchment.

“Okay, I’ll try and hint at the archives when I see Harkness tomorrow.”

With a plan in place, Ianto wished Kingsley goodnight and returned to his home. Looking at the clock Ianto saw he had only five hours before he would need to get up to get into work before the other members turned up. Harkness never said what time he needed to get there the next day but he planned on getting there by seven, he wanted to arrive before the other members would and from the reconnaissance he had done over the last week Ianto knew the rough times that each member turned up to start work.

With the fire doused and the house locked, Ianto made his way upstairs to get ready for bed. As he made his way down the hallway to his room, Ianto opened Dylan’s door to check in on him. In true Dylan style, the young boy was laid starfish on his bed with the covers kicked to the end. Shaking his head in exasperation Ianto walked into the room and gently fixed the blankets, even in sleep his son couldn’t seem to keep still.

With a kiss to the forehead, Ianto left Dylan’s room and made his way to his daughters’ room next. Alannah had recently started sleeping without a night light so Ianto made a habit of checking in on her every night to see how she was getting along sleeping in the dark. Upon opening her door, he saw her sound asleep in the dark, just as uncovered as her brother had been. Covering her up and kissing her on the forehead as well, Ianto exited the room and continued down the hallway to his room at the end.

After a quick shower, Ianto went through his wardrobe in search of a suit for work. Something told him that he would be going through a lot of suits in the coming months, thank Merlin for magic.

**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

Seven am found Ianto entering the tourist office at Mermaid Key, spotting the CCTV in the right corner he knew it was only a matter of time before Harkness realised he was there. While he waited for the Captain to make an appearance, Ianto looked around the office. He could see plenty of potential for the place, once done up it would be the perfect cover for Torchwood and maybe the public wouldn’t be so suspicious when people enter and never come out.

Just a quick look at the catalogues and brochures showed Ianto when the last time the place had been used, all of them were dated for the summer of ’99. He couldn’t believe the Mickey Mouse operation Harkness had going here.

“You’re here early.” If Harkness was hoping to get a reaction out of Ianto by sneaking up on him he was sorely disappointed.

“From the state of this place my work is going to be cut out for me.” Ianto replied as he turned around to look at the other man.

“What do you mean?”

“If you expect to have a cover for Torchwood then you need to keep this place up to date, all of this stuff is eight years out of date. Torchwood London at least knew how to keep a low profile, this place is about as useful as tits on a bull.” Ianto told him as he swiped a finger through the thick dust on the counter.

“It’s fallen into disarray I’ll give you that, but it gets busy here with just four of us running the place.” Harkness tried to reason.

“Well it’s a good thing I’m here now, isn’t it?”

“I guess it is, loving the suit by the way, really snug fit.” Harkness replied as he openly ogled Ianto’s ass.

“Careful sir, I’m pretty sure that falls under harassment.” Ianto responded.

“Right, time for the grand tour.” Harkness said as he clapped his hands together before making his way behind the counter, pressing a button underneath Ianto watched as a panel in the wall slid inwards revealing a room beyond.

Ianto followed the other man through the doorway and towards a lift that took them down to what Ianto understood was the Torchwood Hub. Walking down the short flight of stairs, Ianto was led through a rolling door that lead into the main part of the base.

“Do you lot even know what a garbage bin is? This place looks worse than a college campus after a booze fest.” Ianto said as he looked around at the mess that was accumulating over almost every surface.

“It’s not that bad.” Was Harkness’ indignant reply.

“Seriously? I count four pizza boxes and is that congealed Chinese food in that bin? What, are you trying to grow your own mould colony?” Ianto asked incredulously as he made his way through the piles of garbage.

“It gets busy, we have more important things to do than take time to clean.”

“Are the bags so heavy that none of you can take one out with you as you each leave at the end of the day?”

“Are you going to stand there criticizing us or are you going to let me continue showing you around?” Harkness asked, beginning to get irritated.

“Sure, continue the tour, show me how much more crap you’ve accumulated here.” Ianto replied, sarcasm heavy in his voice.

For the next half hour, Harkness showed Ianto around the rest of the hub. He had his work cut out for him if he was going to get the place to a state of cleanliness it probably hadn’t seen in quiet a while. Each room he was shown added more things to the mental list he was making for a shopping trip. The beast of a coffee machine in the little kitchenette showed promise so he added good coffee beans to the list, along with garbage bags and an abundance of cleaning supplies that the hub seemed to lack greatly.

Harkness even showed him where he had set the Pterodactyl up, Ianto added food for the dinosaur to his ever-growing list. At the end of the tour, Harkness handed Ianto the company credit card and sent him on his way to do what shopping he thought necessary to get the hub into a cleaner state.

By the time he returned to the hub the second in command, Susie Costello, had arrived to work and had started on a nesting platform for the Pterodactyl. Harkness introduced them to each other before heading to his office to procrastinate over the pile of paperwork adorning ninety percent of his desk.

Ianto took the bags of shopping into the kitchen and placed them all on the bench, he unpacked the contents and once he came across the coffee beans he had bought, Ianto set about getting the coffee machine set up. With his back to the CCTV camera on the wall Ianto let a little magic come to the surface and let it run over the machine, the reading he got showed him the machine was in perfect working order. From the looks of it no one knew how to work the thing so it had sat on the bench for who knows how long while the kettle next to it was used to make coffee with what appeared to be a cheap and nasty brand of instant coffee.

By the time Ianto had the beans ground and the machine up and running, the other two members of Torchwood had arrived at the hub. Ianto loaded five mugs onto a tray after filling them with the freshly brewed coffee, he exited the kitchen and made his way down to the main part of the hub where all the members were gathered waiting on him.

“Ianto Jones, let me introduce you to the other members of the team. This is Toshiko Sato, technical genius and Owen Harper, our resident doctor.” Harkness said as Ianto handed out the mugs of coffee.

“So, these are the ones who don’t know how to clean up after themselves?”

“Anyway, Ianto will be keeping this place clean for us as well as setting up the tourist office to keep our cover for us. Once all that is set up, I’ll show him the archives and maybe we can finally get it into some form of organisation.” Harkness interjected when he saw the expression on Owen face at Ianto’s remark.

“Oh wow, how did you get the coffee to taste so good?” Toshiko asked shyly before she took another sip from her mug.

“A combination of a good machine and even better beans.” Ianto told her.

“If you keep making coffee like this then it may be worth keeping you here after all.” Harper said before walking away towards the medical bay.

“Welcome to Torchwood three Ianto Jones.” Harkness said with a clap on Ianto’s back before walking off in the direction of his office.

_Well, this is going to be interesting._ Ianto thought before he made his way back to the kitchen. He was going to have his hands full dealing with this lot. Somehow he thought a herd of raging centaurs would be better to handle than this lot.


	4. Everything Changes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this is the fastest I have ever gotten a story out. Helps that I'm watching Torchwood at the same time I'm typing it. Will try to have 'Day One' and 'Ghost Machine' up tomorrow. I'll mostly gloss over those two and have more of Ianto at home in them, what would have been 'Cyberwoman' will be when all Ianto's secrets (well, most of them) come to light. Enjoy.

**Chapter Four:** Everything Changes

Ianto had been working at Torchwood Cardiff for three months now and it was so vastly different to Torchwood London. He hadn’t expected the other team members to be friendly with him, and meeting _Doctor_ Owen Harper had just cemented that belief. Harkness was a blatant flirt, every time he saw Ianto he was either leering or making some inappropriate comment.

Suzie Costello kept to herself, concentrating on some glove that had come through the rift. Ianto kept a distance form the glove, it made his skin crawl whenever he went near it and it was a feeling he didn’t like.

Toshiko was by far the friendlier of the group, she always had a smile and a thankyou ready whenever Ianto delivered her coffee to her. But mostly she kept to herself and her computers, running one program or another, trying her best to ignore Owen and his crass remarks to Ianto.

It had taken Ianto a whole week to get the pain part of the hub looking less like a cesspool and more like an actual workspace. There was food in the bins that he was tempted to get carbon dated, and enough empty bottles to fill the tourist office.

The tourist office, that was another matter altogether. It had taken him a month to fully sort it out, he had repainted both inside and out to make it look even halfway decent. He had then ordered in updated maps and brochure’s for local attractions as well as ordered stationary supplies to keep on the counter.

When it was finally complete, and looking like a proper cover for Torchwood, Harkness had decided to show Ianto the archives. He damn near had a heart attack at the sight that greeted him upon entering the lower level of the Hub. Alien tech was strewn all over the place, haphazardly dumped into boxes and on shelves. And nearly everything was either mislabelled or not labelled at all. A month into starting on the archives and he hadn’t even gotten halfway through the A’s yet.

Between running the tourist office, sorting the archives and running around like Torchwoods personal butler, Ianto barely had time for his family. He knew it was starting to piss his mother right off. She thought his new job was far more demanding than it was when he worked at Canary Wharf, at least then he had every second weekend off. Now he barely gets an afternoon off let alone a full day.

Like now, he was currently on the comms with the others as they were Weevil hunting when an alert at Tosh’s computer started to sound. Ianto got up from his seat and made his way over, hitting a few buttons he read as a police report came up about another stabbing victim. He knew the others would want to know about it, especially Suzie with that damn glove of hers.

“Sir, a police report has just been. Another stabbing victim has been found.”

_“All right, Ianto call through and have them close of the crime scene. Send through the location to Tosh’s PDA.”_ Jack said through the comms.

“On it.” Ianto replied as he started to type on Tosh’s computer.

With the coordinates sent through to Tosh, Ianto went back to his desk to make the phone call to the local Heddlu. They didn’t much like dealing with Torchwood but Ianto was always good at getting on people’s good side and since he had started doing most of the communicating with them, they had become a little easier to deal with.

“The SOCO’s have been informed of your arrival and they should be away from the body by the time you get there.” Ianto told them.

_“Thanks, Ianto.”_

_“We should be there in five minutes.” _Tosh told them.

“Oh great, it just has to be raining.” Owen complained as they got closer to the scene. The body was in the street in the rain, he didn’t like getting wet.

“Stop complaining.” Suzie told him as the SUV pulled to a stop.

“There you go, I can taste it.” Jack said once they entered the crime scene.

“Oestrogen, definitely oestrogen. You take the pill, flush it away. It enters the water cycle, feminises the fish.” Jack spoke as the other three got their equipment ready.

“Goes all the way up into the sky, then falls back down on me. Contraceptives in the rain. Still, at least I won’t get pregnant. Never doing that again. How’s it going?”

Sometimes the things Jack said just confused Ianto more and more, most of what he said didn’t make any sense and he didn’t know if was being said just to confuse them or if they were all true.

“Nothing yet. It’s got to connect; I’ve just got to feel it.” Suzie said as she looked at the silver glove on her hand.

“Hurry up and feel it, I’m freezing my arse off here.” Owen said as he walked around with the camera.

“I can’t just flick a switch, it’s more like access. It grants me access.” Suzie told him.

“Whatever that means.” Ianto was sure that half of what Owen spouted out was purely to annoy the others.

“It’s like… Oh, oh!” Suzie started, before the glove started to glow blue.

“Positions.” Jack called.

“If I get punched again, I’m punching him right back.” Owen announced as he crouched down next to Suzie.

“Just, concentrate. Suzie?” Jack said as he looked at Suzie.

She placed the gloved hand under the victim’s head and the rain directly over them suddenly stopped, and the lights surrounding them got brighter right before the man on the ground jerked up and took a breath.

“There was… What was? I was, I was. Oh, my god, I was going home.” The man stuttered, a confused look on his face.

“Listen to me, we’ve only got two minutes so it’s important that you listen, okay?” Tosh said as she looked at him.

“Who are you?

“Trust me. You’re dead.” _Subtle, Tosh._ Ianto thought as he listened to the conversation through the comms.

“How am I dead?”

“You were stabbed.” Owen told him.

“I’m not dead, I can see you.” The man said, denial and disbelief plain as day in his voice.

“We’ve brought you back, but we haven’t got long, I’m sorry but you’ve got to concentrate, who did this to you? What did you see?” Tosh asked.

“Why am I dead?”

“Who attacked you?”” Tosh asked him.

“I don’t want to be dead.”

“Sixty seconds.” Suzie told them.

“You’ve got to think, just focus on me. What was the last thing you saw?” Tosh asked.

“I didn’t see, I don’t know.”

“Who killed you, did you see them?” Tosh asked again.

“I don’t know. There was… something behind me.”

_“Police said one stab wound to the back.”_ Ianto informed them through the comms.

“So, you didn’t see anything?” Tosh asked again.

“No. What happens now?” The man asked.

“Thirty seconds.” Suzie informed them.

“But he didn’t see anyone.” Tosh told her.

“Don’t waste it.” Suzie said as she looked at Tosh.

“What else do I say?” Tosh asked as she looked at Jack.

“What’s your name?” Jack asks after crouching down.

“John. John Tucker.”

“Okay, John. Not long now.” Jack said to him.

“Who are you?” John asked.

“Captain Jack Harkness. Tell me… what was it like when you died? What did you see?” Jack asked.

John just lay there and stared at Jack.

“Tell me what you saw.” Jack told him.

“Ten seconds.” Suzie told him.

“Nothing. I saw nothing. Oh, my god. There’s nothing.” John said before he did again, going still. The lights went back to their normal brightness and the rain started back up again.

“Shit. I said it was stupid, telling him he was dead.” Owen said as he looked at Jack.

“Well you try it.” Tosh said as she stood back up.

“_Trust me_, like that’s gonna work.” Owen said before he too stood back up.

“Told the last corpse he was injured; he wasted the whole two minutes screaming for an ambulance.” Jack said.

“Maybe there’s no right way of doing it.” Jack continued before looking up and shouting “What do you think.”

“What on earth are you going on about?” Owen asked as he looked up.

“The female copper up there, she was watching what we were doing.” Jack explained.

“Great, that’s just what we need.” Owen grumbled.

“Ianto, see if you can grab her image from CCTV. I want to know who she is.” Jack asked as they started packing up.

_“On it, sir.”_ Ianto replied.

**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

“Jack, Rift alert. There’s a Weevil near the hospital.” Tosh said as she stood in the doorway to Jack’s office.

“Right, let’s get going. Ianto, you’re driving.” Jack called as he tossed the keys to the Welshman.

Ianto pulled on his jacket and followed the others out of the Hub to where the SUV was parked. It wasn’t often that Ianto went out with the others but when he did it was usually to drive the others around. He might as well add chauffer to his job description.

They arrived at the hospital within five minutes and Ianto parked around the back, away from the foot traffic. The others got out and headed into the building, leaving Ianto to sit in the car. While he waited, he pulled out his mobile and called Jess.

_“Ianto, what’s up? You usually don’t call this time of day.”_

“I’m chauffer again, apparently I’m supposed to just sit here and twiddle my thumbs.” Ianto told her as he looked out the window.

_“Better you than me.”_

“Ha, ha, you’re hilarious. They’re off on another Weevil hunt, any luck from Hermione on whether there is anything written on them in our history?” Ianto asked.

_“She got back to me earlier actually, she wasn’t able to find anything on them.”_ Jess informed him.

“So, either they were never recorded, or our ancestors never came across their species.”

_“That’s Hermione’s thought too. She figured that either they weren’t a real enough threat, or they were most likely from a planet further away and had never been encountered.”_

“Oh, well. It was worth a shot.”

They continued to talk for the next half hour before Jess told him she had to go, that left him sitting in the car with nothing else to do but wait for the others to come back.

He had just gotten through the third verse of ‘Do the Hippogriff’ by the Weird Sisters when the door the others had entered the hospital through opened and they came out. Suzie and Tosh were struggling to carry the body of a subdued Weevil while Jack and Owen were carrying the dead body of a man. Ianto got out of the car and ran around to the back to open it up.

Jack and Own put the man’s body in first before Ianto helped Suzie and Tosh with the Weevil, looked like he would need to write up another accident report.

“Right, let’s get out of here. Ianto, drive.” Jack said as they all climbed back into the SUV.

Ianto started the engine and drove away from the curb, almost hitting the same copper from the night before. He pressed his hand down on the horn to get her to move before speeding off out of the carpark.

Looking in the mirror just before they went through the tunnel, Ianto saw Cooper following them in her squad car. Obviously, she didn’t know the meaning of subtlety.

“Sir, she’s following us. Two cars back and on the right.” Ianto pointed out.

“Okay, Ianto drop us off on the Plass, she’ll follow us, and it will give you time to park the SUV. Once we get in through the lift, Owen can help you get the bodies out of the car.” Jack said as he looked through the mirror at their not so subtle tail.

As soon as Ianto dropped the others off on the Plass he continued driving, he would need to organise a cell for the Weevil and move the body of the porter to autopsy. It would be interesting to see how things with Cooper worked out, she sure was determined.

**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

“Jack, that police constable is back.” Tosh said as she pointed to the screen in front of her that had the footage from the Plass CCTV on it.

“This is going to get interesting. Ianto, go up to the tourist office and let her in when she gets here. I want to see what she does to gain access to the Hub.” Jack said as he followed Cooper’s movements as she made her way to Jubilee Pizza.

Ianto grabbed his comm off his desk and made his way up to the tourist office. Harkness could have just retconned her the other night when they were dealing with John Tucker, but the idiot wanted to see how things went with her first before making that decision. Ianto was tempted to cast a memory charm but he really wasn’t in the mood to try and explain it away when the others noticed.

He had just finished making a cup of coffee when he heard the door to the office open, picking his mug up Ianto made his way through the beads that hung in the doorway to see Constable Gwen Cooper standing there with two pizzas in her hands. _So that’s the route she chose, Jack’s going to have a field day._

“Oh, hiya. Sorry I’m late, someone ordered pizza.”

“Who’s it for?”

“I think it’s a… Mr Harkness.” Ianto tried not to laugh at the response, Jack wasn’t dumb enough to order pizza under his own name.

Ianto smirked at her response to the door slamming closed behind her before he made his way over to the button under the counter, he pressed the button and watched as her eyes widened at the sight of the panel on the wall opening inwards to reveal the entrance to the Hub.

“Don’t keep them waiting.” Ianto said as she turned to look at him.

**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

The cog door rolled shut and the grate in front of it closed as PC Cooper walked into the main part of the Hub. To the right Suzie was welding at her station and up on the platform to the left Tosh was working on four monitors simultaneously and Owen was hunched over his desk.

Jack came walking along the walkway up top and made his way towards his office, he hadn’t even been sitting down for long before Tosh started giggling setting off Owen who spun around in his seat.

“I can’t do this, I’m sorry. I’m rubbish. I give up!” Owen says, laughter in his voice.

“He set me off.” Tosh accused as she pointed at Owen.

“Well that lasted nought point two seconds.” Suzie called from her workstation.

“She’s actually carrying pizza.” Owen points out.

“Come on! She was gonna say, ‘Here’s your pizza’, and I was gonna say, ‘How much?’ and she says, ‘Oh, whatever, twenty quid,’ and I say, ‘Oh, I don’t have any money.’ I was working on a punchline. I’d have got there, but it would have been good” Jack said as he got up from his desk to make his way out of his office.

“There’s your pizza. I’d better go.” Gwen said.

“I think we’ve gone past that stage.” Jack says to her.

“You must have been freezing out there. How long were you walking around? Three hours?” Suzie asked her.

“You could see me?” Suzie just nods before moving away.

“And before we go any further, who the hell orders pizza under the name of Torchwood?” Jack asked.

“Ah yeah, that’d be me. I’m sorry. I’m a twat.” Owen said as he put his hand up.

“That man, at the hospital, that porter, what happened to him? That was real, wasn’t it? He was attacked.” Gwen asked as she looked at Jack.

“He’s dead.” Jack told her.

“But there’s no-one gone missing.” Gwen added.

“We took the body, retrospectively changed the work rota, planted a false witness who saw him leaving the hospital, giving him an alibi for the next forty eight hours, so when his body’s pulled out of the docks next Tuesday night, he’s only been missing for three days.” Tosh explained.

“He was murdered?” Gwen asked her.

“Yeah.”

“And you covered it up?”

“That’s my job.” Tosh replied before turning back to her computer.

“And that other man, John Tucker? Last night in the alleyway, I saw you.” Gwen asked as she looked back to Jack.

“And what did you see?” He asked as he walked closer to her.

“You revived him.”

“No. What did you see?”

“You resuscitated him.”

“No, what did you see?” Jack asked again.

“You brought him back to life.” Gwen said as she finally looked back at Jack.

“Yeah.”

“Who are you?”

“Torchwood.” Jack replied.

“What’s Torchwood?”

“This is Torchwood. All around you.” Jack told her as he waved his hand around.

“And what happens to me?” Gwen asked him. “I’m police. Constable Gwen Cooper. You can’t do anything.”

“Right then, PC Cooper, do you want to come see?” Jack asks her.

“See what?”

“You saw the murder. Come and see the murderer.” Jack says to her before turning around.

“Go with him.” Suzie tells her.

Gwen places the boxes of pizza on the table behind her before following Jack. Ianto comes into the main part of the Hub just in time to see Cooper duck at the sound Myfanwy makes as she flies overhead. _She sure is a jumpy one_. He thinks as she makes her way to the vaults with Jack.

Twenty minutes later Jack and Cooper return to the main Hub where Jack proceeds to introduce everyone to the curious Constable.

“Owen Harper, Gwen Cooper.”

“’Doctor’ Owen Harper, thank you.”

“Toshiko Sato, computer genius. Suzie Costello, she’s second in command. And this is Ianto Jones, Ianto cleans up after us and gets us everywhere on time.” Jack introduces as he points to each person.

“I try my best.” Ianto adds.

“And he looks good in a suit.” Jack adds with a leer.

“Careful, that’s harassment, sir.” Ianto replies, it seemed to be the norm lately whenever Jack flirted with him. It took all Ianto’s willpower not to flirt back.

“But why are you telling me this? I’m not supposed to know, am I? This is classified, isn’t it?” Gwen asked.

“Way beyond classified.” Jack said before turning around to head to his office.

“Then you shouldn’t be telling me. What are you gonna do to me?”

“What do you imagine?”

“Well, I’ve seen too much. Your names and everything, and the Weevil, and… You can dump a man in the water and lie about his death.”

Ianto walked into Jack’s office with a pile of paperwork for the man to do as Jack gave out instructions to everyone. He placed the files on the desk and turned around in time for Jack to tell him about backing up Owen tomorrow if he needs it. As everyone left, Ianto started making the rounds to everyone’s workstation, picking up empty mugs to take to the kitchen for cleaning.

He had just collected Suzie’s mug when he looked up to see Jack and Cooper rising through the gap above. Once the dishes were done, he planned on giving the place a clean, as usual Owen’s desk looked like a mini nuke had gone off on the surface. The man still didn’t know how to use the bin next to his desk, Ianto was tempted to draw up step by step instructions in crayon to see if that would help it to sink in.

The floor around Jack’s bin was littered with balled up pieces of paper that he had been throwing at the bin in boredom earlier that day, as usual trying to avoid doing his paperwork. Working for Torchwood three sometimes felt like being at home, cleaning up after messy children only he was cleaning up after full grown adults who knew better.

**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

Ianto had just finished cleaning the Hub and was making his way to his desk to shut off the lamp when Jack’s voice came through the comm he still had in his ear.

_“Ianto, I want you to hack into PC Coopers home computer and erase anything she tries to save about Torchwood. Then go home, you’ve been there long enough.”_

“Of course, sir. I’ll do that now.”

_“Night Ianto, I’ll see your cute arse tomorrow.”_

“Harassment, sir.” Ianto replied before he started to type on the computer.

Getting into Cooper’s home computer was ridiculously easy, reading over what she had managed to type already. Towards the end of the page he could see signs of the retcon taking affect, words were misspelled, and no words had been typed for a while. He highlighted the words and deleted them before remotely turning Cooper’s computer off. Once done, Ianto powered down his own computer and turned the lamp off. He was so tired that he was sure he’d be asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

Ianto just knew that the glove would come to no good, now Suzie was dead and Ianto found himself scrubbing her blood off the pavement of the Plass. This is not the kind of job he wanted to be doing, he may not have known Suzie that well, but she was still a part of the team. If only he had been able to sense the true power of that damn glove maybe she wouldn’t be dead. Then again, he had learnt the hard way that there was no point in dwelling on the past.

_“Ianto, when you’re done then, head on home. I’ve given everyone tomorrow off, that includes you as well.”_ Jack’s voice came over the comms just as Ianto was standing up from his crouched position.

“All right, I’ve just finished now. I’ll pack all this stuff away and head out.” Ianto replied before picking the bucket up and heading back towards the tourist office.

He couldn’t be bothered to head into the main Hub, so he just put the bucket in the back room and washed his hands before grabbing his jacket from off the counter. After he put it on, he turned off the lights and locked up the office. He had a feeling that Jack was going to hire Gwen, so he made sure to make a note to get the paperwork rolling for Gwen as well as organising a locker as well as an ID and gun.

He was looking forward to a good long sleep tomorrow, with the kids at school he wouldn’t need to worry about being disturbed.


	5. Day One/Ghost Machine

**Chapter Five:** Day One/Ghost Machine

“Dad, I can’t find my shoes.” Dylan yelled as he raced from the living room into the hallway.

“If you put your bloody shoes away at the end of the day, we wouldn’t have this problem.” Ianto called back from the kitchen. He was currently doing Alannah’s hair while his son ran around the house like a chook with its head cut off.

“But I did put them away.” Dylan called as he ran up the stairs.

“If you put them away then why can’t you find them?” Ianto yelled.

“Should put a tracker on his shoes.” Alannah said from her place on the stool.

“Hush you, you’re no better. Leaving your school bag lying around all over the place.” Ianto told her.

“I got them.” Dylan said as he entered the kitchen, said shoes in his hand.

“And, where were they?” Ianto asked.

“In the media room.” Dylan replied as he sat on the floor to put them on.

“So, did you leave them in the media room, or did your shoes suddenly gain sentience and walk into the media room from your wardrobe?” Ianto asked.

“I left them in the media room.” Dylan told his dad, a sheepish look on his face.

“I thought so. Come on, we better hurry or we’re going to miss the movie.” Ianto told them as he headed for the front door, he grabbed the keys off the side table and opened the door.

“Right, have you two decided on where you want to go for dinner?” Ianto asked once he help Alannah to strap in.

“We still can’t decide.” Dylan told him as Ianto started the car.

“Well you have until the end of the movie to decide.” Ianto told them.

This was Ianto’s first weekend off in ages, Jess had gone home to see her family for the weekend and his mum was spending the weekend in Hogsmeade with his sister and dad. He had told Jack not to call him in unless the world was being invaded, then refused to explain why when his teammates started asking why the weekend was so important.

Owen started making crass remarks about him having an orgy and Jack complained about not being invited. Tosh told them to leave off and told Ianto that she hoped he had fun, no matter what it was he was doing.

Everyone had the weekend off; the Rift was supposed to be quiet for the nest few days but Ianto wasn’t going to hold his breath for said peace to last. Gwen was due to start work in the next week, she would get called in when she was needed. Ianto had already finished and file all the paperwork required for Gwen Cooper to become a new member of the team. With the Rift being quiet they had yet to call her in for work.

“All right, guys. It’s movie time.” Ianto announced as he parked at the cinema, he had picked one far enough away from the Hub so that no one around there would notice him. Torchwood three may be different than Torchwood London had been but Ianto still didn’t trust any of them enough to reveal his family just yet.

**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

Ianto was halfway through reading Alannah a bedtime story when his phone buzzed, pulling it out of his pocket he saw a message from Jack. Looked like his free weekend was not to be. Luckily his daughter had fallen asleep during the story, and Dylan had gone to bed over half an hour ago. Putting the book on the side table, Ianto left his daughters room and made his way to his office.

With Jess in London and his mother with Rhia, Ianto would have to call someone else to watch the kids while he went into work. Hopefully Harry or Hermione would be able to watch them.

“Harry? Draco? Are either of you there?”

“Ianto, what’s wrong?” Draco asked as he sat in front of the fireplace in his study.

“I’m in a bind, Jess has gone to London for the weekend and mam is busy with Rhia. Any chance you guys could come and watch Dylan and Alannah? I’ve been called into work.” Ianto explained.

“Hang on, let me talk to Harry. Either one of us will be through in a few minutes, just get yourself ready.” Draco told him before going off to find his husband.

Dousing the flame, Ianto then left the office and made his way to his bedroom. He was beyond annoyed, Ianto was really looking forward to his weekend off.

**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

Ianto was sitting at his computer going through police reports when he heard the alarms for the cog door going off. Looking up Ianto saw the team entering the Hub, Gwen apologising profusely as they came in.

“I’m so sorry.”

“Seriously, stop saying that.” Jack told her for what was most likely the hundredth time from the look on his face.

“But I am. I mean, really. I mean, really, really sorry. God, I can’t believe it.”

“Didn’t they teach you health and safety in the police?” Owen asked her as he walked past with a large case in hand.

“You two chucked tools at each other, so I…”

“We didn’t miss.” Owen responded.

“I’ll sort it. Whatever’s happened, I’ll deal with it.” Gwen said, trying to placate the annoyed doctor.

“What do you think has happened?” Tosh asked.

“I mean, it was just gas, wasn’t it? That can’t be too bad, can it?” Gwen asked as they made their way to autopsy.

“Right, because gas never did anyone any harm.” Was Owen’s reply.

“On the plus side, we’ve got good evidence, relatively undamaged.” Jack said as he opened the case to reveal a chunk of the meteorite.

“On the downside, there’s an alien loose. We don’t know where it is, why it’s here or what it’s going to do.” Owen added.

“Give her a break.” Tosh told him.

“God, this has been the worst first day ever.” Gwen said, upset clear in her voice.

“We all make mistakes, get over it. Now we find whatever came out of there.” Jack told her.

“Ahem, this might help. Nightclub death been phoned in to 999. Circumstances sound… a little unusual. Might be connected.” Ianto said as he read from the printout he had before handing the clip board to Gwen.

“Right, what’s the address?” Jack asked.

“It’s at The Night Spot.” Ianto informed him.

“All right, people, lets go check it out.” Jack said before climbing the stairs from autopsy, the other three following him.

Once the others left the Hub to chase up on the police report, Ianto grabbed his mobile out of his pocket and dialled his home phone. He hated having to leave the house in the middle of the night when the kids were asleep.

“Hey, Harry, how are the kids?”

_“They’re doing fine. Lanny woke up not long after you left, wondering where you had gotten to. I just explained you were called into work and she was fine.”_

“Thanks Harry, I’m sorry to call you away like this.”

_“You don’t need to apologise, mate. You know Dray and I would do anything to help you out, I reckon we owe you a few thousand thanks to your help during the war.” _Harry told him.

“Well they’ve gone off to investigate a police report that may pertain to this new case. What can you tell me about the current one you guys are working on?” Ianto asked as he made his way to the kitchen to make coffee.

_“There’s a cell of Death Eaters we’ve been tracking for the last month. Ever since the incident that caused Seamus’ death, we’ve been tight lipped on any information regarding Death Eaters on the loose. These ones have managed to give us the slip every time we get close.” _Harry began.

“Do you think there is another spy in the Auror department?” Ianto asked, his heart skipping a beat at the mention of his deceased husband.

_“I don’t see how there can be, all reports are kept within our team. The only ones with the information are Draco, Ron, Blaise, Kingsley and me. We even encrypt all the notes.”_ Harry explained, exasperation in his voice.

“They may have spells and wards in place keyed to the magical signatures of your team. It wouldn’t have been hard for them to get access to them when they had a spy in the Auror department.” Ianto suggested.

_“That idea has great merit; I didn’t think of something like that.”_

“I aim to help, I best get going though, before this lot show back up. Let me know if there are any developments.” Ianto told Harry, they said their goodbyes before hanging up.

**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

Ianto walked down the spiral staircase into the main part of the Hub just as Tosh was letting Jack know what the gas contained.

“Great, my two favourite gases. Can we do a check and find out what we know about them?” Jack asked.

“I’m all over it.” Owen replied.

“What’s this doing?” Gwen asked Tosh as she looked over her shoulder at the monitor.

“I’ve taken an image of the girl from the CCTV footage. This cross-checks her face with the UK population.” Tosh replied.

“You can’t have every face in the UK on there. That would be against civil liberties, data protection, all that stuff” Ianto rolled his eyes at Gwen’s response, she needed to get with the program.

“Still doing that ‘you’ instead of ‘we’ thing.” Jack said before taking a mouthful of the coffee Ianto had given him.

“Damn, 119 suspects? That things supposed to give us a single clear match.” Owen complained as he looked at the results on his computer.

“The CCTV was too low res. I’ve tried magnifying and augmenting but it just breaks up. Which means the software can’t function properly.” Tosh explained.

“It’s narrowed the numbers down; I could check through the rest. You know, the old-fashioned way. With my eyes.” Ianto told them as he pointed at his eyes.

“What about the fingerprints I took off the alley wall?” Gwen asked.

“It was a long shot anyway.” Gwen said as she saw the no match found come up on the monitor.

“Just a bit.”

“At least I’m doing something.” Gwen said back at Owen.

“No, you’re just trying anything.” Owen responded.

“The CCTV must have picked up her arrival at the club. Tosh, can you reformat the image recognition software to trace her journey backwards via the street camera network?” Jack asked, before Gwen and Owen got into another argument.

“I’ll have a go, but it’ll take a while to process. Every possible turn on every corner means hundreds and thousands of possibilities.” Tosh told him.

“Have a go. At least we’ll know where she started the evening.” Jack told her before turning to head into his office.

“We could cross reference that with the addresses of the remaining face matches.” Gwen suggested.

“Good one, newbie! That’s a bit more like it!” Owen told her, Ianto could hear the sarcasm dripping from every word.

**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

“And she said, ‘If I’d known what he was, I never would have married him!’” Jack’s story had everyone laughing while they ate lunch.

“She knew, she knew all along.” Tosh said through her laughter.

“And she didn’t care.” Owen added.

“Until he started leaving black piles of mucus in the bathtub.” Ianto added as well, the stories Jack told sometimes were rather humorous.

“Always the big giveaway. Aliens have no sense of household hygiene. Which reminds me. Gotta pee.” Jack got up from the table and left the conference room.

“So, what's he told you?” Owen asked Gwen once Jack had left hearing range.

  
“What about?”

  
“Himself.” Tosh elaborated.

  
“You've been here longer than I have.”

  
“We were banking on you.” Tosh told her.

  
“You're a copper. You're trained to ask questions.” Owen said to her.

  
“You don't know anything?” Gwen asked them.

  
“Not who he is, not where he's from. Nothing. Except him being gay.” Owen told her.

  
“No, he's not. Really, do you think?” Was Gwen’s shocked reply.

  
“Owen does. I don't.” Tosh said as Owen nodded his head.

  
“And I don't care.” Ianto added his two cents, people tended to keep their personal lives secret for a reason, his teammates seemed to have forgotten that.

  
“Period military is not the dress code of a straight man.” Owen said before taking another swig of his beer.

  
“I think it suits him. Sort of classic.” The others could hear the wistfulness in her voice as she talked about Jack, Ianto just barely managed to not roll his eyes.

  
“Exactly. I've watched him in action. He'll shag anything if it's gorgeous enough.” Sometimes the things that came out of Tosh’s moth surprised Ianto, she generally came off as sweet and innocent.

  
“We know he's from America, right?” Gwen asked them.

  
“We don't even know that for sure.” Owen told her.

  
“No US citizen by the name of Jack Harkness born in the last fifty years.” Tosh had checked extensively but was unable to find anything on their elusive boss.

  
“Maybe his identity's classified.” Gwen said as she reached for a cracker.

  
“Used to be something big in the CIA. That's what I reckon.” Ianto added, he knew better but it was fun to see what they would come up with.

  
“He must have his reasons for wanting to keep things secret.” Finally, someone was catching on, even if it was Gwen.

  
“Sure he has. Doesn't stop me wanting to know what they are.” Owen told her.

“What's that sound?” Gwen asked just before Jack came back into the room

Owen reached across the table and grabbed up the remote from next to Ianto, he pointed it at the screen on the wall and pressed the on button. An image from inside the cell Carys was currently occupying came up on the screen, the young woman was slumped over crying.

  
  
“What are we doing having Chinese while a girl fights for her life?” Gwen asked.

  
“Actually, while we've been eating, the computers have been running a full bio-scan on Carys, profiling her blood, metabolism, organs, skin, the works. So we can see what effect the alien's having on her. They've also been taking samples of the air in the cell so we can analyse any changes in the environment around her. Now, is that enough? Do you want more? Cos it gets kinda boring.” Jack explained.

  
“You've been hidden down here too long. Spending so much time with the alien stuff, you've lost what it means to be human.” Gwen said to him, Ianto would take offence to her comment if he was actually Human.

  
“So remind us. Tell me what it means to be human in the twenty first century.” Jack replied.

  
“All right.”

**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

Ianto didn’t want to stick around and listen to more of Gwen’s humanity speech so he went up to the tourist office after cleaning up the mess from lunch. It was only her first case with them, and she was already grating on Ianto’s nerves. Deciding it was time for a coffee, Ianto went into the back room and started the kettle. The coffee up here wasn’t as good as the coffee in the Hub, but it was better than nothing.

He had just come back through the beads when the panel on the wall opened up, he walked towards it but stopped when Carys was followed through by Jack who had his gun out and aimed at Carys who had the hand that Jack was always fussing over in her hands.

“Need me to do any attacking, sir?”

“Appreciate the offer. Just open the door.” Jack said as he holstered his gun.

Ianto reached to the right and pressed the button to open the front door. Carys turned to look at the open door as Jack reached his arms out to her.

“Now, give me the jar.”

Instead of giving the jar to Jack, Carys threw it over the counter before running out of the Tourist office, jack vaulted over the counter just before Gwen and Tosh came running through the doorway. They both ran out after spotting Jack holding the twitching hand from the jar.

“Do you need help, sir?” Ianto asked.

“No, it’s fine. I’ll sort it.” Jack replied as he stood up, still holding the hand he walked through the doorway and headed back down into the Hub.

“I’ll just clean up the mess then, shall I?” Ianto asked the empty room sarcastically.

Shaking his head, Ianto made his way over to the mess on the floor and started picking up the pieces of broken glass. He was always left to clean up everyone’s mess, they were a right lazy lot.

“Ianto, where did Jack go?” Tosh asked when she and Gwen came back in through the door.

“Downstairs playing with his hand.” Ianto replied, not in the mood to deal with them at the moment.

“Thanks love.” Came Gwen’s reply before they headed back downstairs.

Ianto just shook his head and went back to picking up the pieces of glass.

**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

The week after the sex gas alien was rather uneventful, just the usual Weevil sightings and a few bits and pieces that came through the Rift. He had gone to another Parent/Teacher meeting at the kids’ school and Alannah had received an award at school for maths.

Jack did his usual flirting, with anyone he came across, though he did flirt with Ianto a lot more than usual. Gwen regaled them with stories of her time at college and working for the Heddlu, and Owen was his usual uncaring crass self who still treated Ianto like the resident maid.

The ten-year anniversary of the end of the war was coming up in seven months and the ministry were already bugging Ianto, Harry and Draco about the celebrations that were being planned. Neither of them enjoyed being celebrated for their involvement in the war. While everyone else praised them for what they had done, the three young men still thought of all the lives lost. They’re the ones that needed celebrating. Not that anything they said would be taken into consideration, so they didn’t even bother any more.

Currently they were investigating a young man who had gotten his hands on a device that allowed Gwen to see what she called a ghost. Ianto had never heard of anyone other than a witch or wizard who could see ghosts, so he found his interest piqued when they started discussing it.

“Our friend with the alien machine in his pocket is one Sean Harris aka Bernie.” Jack told them as he typed on his computer.

  
“And what he's doing with an alien machine is anyone's guess. Nineteen years old. String of convictions. Burglary, shoplifting, credit cards.” Gwen recited as she made her way into Jack’s office.

  
“Do warn me if he's dropping in.” Ianto said as he held open the paper bag in his hand for Jack to get his pastry and coffee.

  
“The theft conviction, he was stealing tyres off a car when the owner turns up, gives him so much grief, he apologises. Starts putting them back on again, which is when the police show up. And here. Shoplifting conviction. Bottle of vodka and three Pot Noodles.” Tosh read from the clip board in her hands.

  
“A criminal mastermind.” Owen said, most of his concentration on the game in front of him.

  
“Got anywhere with that mystery object?” He asked, taking his eyes off the screen.

  
“Alien, of course. Gorgeous nanotechnology, makes NASA look like Toys 'R' Us.” Jack told them through a mouthful of his bun.

  
“Well, you've really narrowed things down, haven't you?” Owen replied, just before losing the game.

  
“At the station it was doing this. When I held it, it lit up and went mad.” Gwen said, holding the device in her hand.

  
“It's not doing it now, is it?” Owen asked.

  
“No.”

  
“So, what next?” Tosh asked.

  
“This kid, Bernie, where does he live?” Jack asked them, mouth full of food. His table manners were worse than Ianto’s kids.

  
“Splott.” Tosh told him.

  
“Splott?” Owen asked, incredulously.

  
“I believe estate agents pronounce it Sploe.” Ianto said before taking a bite of his own pastry.

**TWHPTWHPTWHPTWHP**

The device Gwen discovered turned out to be worse than Ianto thought it was, a man was dead, and Owen was still reeling from the vision he had seen when the device had activated for him. As much as Owen pissed him off, Ianto would never wish an experience like that on anyone.

Gwen was currently sitting in a seat in front of Jack’s desk, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and a haunted look on her face. Her night had not ended well.

“He wanted to die. He would have found a way, no matter what.” Tosh tried to reassure her.

  
“I screwed up; I know I did. But um, I didn't kill him. I could of, but I didn't.” Owen added.

  
“No. I did.” Gwen said, her voice shaking.

  
“Tosh is right. It could have been anyone.” Jack told her as Ianto poured scotch into three glasses sitting on his desk.

  
“What about that?” Tosh asked, looking at the device on Jack’s desk.

  
“The problem with seeing the future is you can't just sit and look at it. Got to try and change things, make it happen differently.” Jack said, looking at the device as Ianto walked around and handed the drinks out.

“It's not meant for us. All these ghosts. We'd be lost. Sun's nearly up. Ianto.” Jack said as he picked the device up, he then held it out for Ianto to take.

  
“Secure archives?” Ianto asked as he took the Ghost Machine from Jack. Jack nodded and Ianto turned to put it away.

  
“Come on.” Jack said to Gwen, before getting up from his chair and leading Gwen out of his office.

Ianto finished locking away the Ghost Machine and then went into the filing cabinet next to Jack’s desk, he retrieved the paperwork he would need to file for the device. When he closed the draw, he saw that Tosh and Owen had also left the room, they had made their way to their respective desks and started to shut everything down.

After the night they had, Jack was sure to send them home for the day. They would be called in if required but they both planned to just go home and sleep.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Ianto.” Tosh said before making her way to the exit, Owen close behind her.

Ianto filled out the report for the Ghost Machine and left it on Jack’s desk for him to sign, he straightened up the Hub and did the dishes before heading out. He locked up the Tourist office, knowing Jack would use the lift to get back down into the Hub. When he exited the door, he saw Gwen with her head on Jack’s shoulder, Jack’s arm was wrapped around her and they were staring off into the Bay. Ianto walked along the pier before turning left and made his way across the Plass to where he had parked his car, with a bit of luck the kids would just be getting up when he got home, and he’d be able to see them before they headed off to school.

So lost in thought, he didn’t even see the group of three men watching him from the walkway bridge he had just walked under.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up, Ianto's big secret is revealed to the rest of Torchwood three.

**Author's Note:**

> My other Harry Potter story (Sudden Changes) will be finished once I find my external Hard Drive that has the last two chapters on it. For now, this is something that has been rattling around in my head since I first watched Torchwood.


End file.
